Smoke-filled BA plane evacuated

An investigation was under way today after more than 50 passengers were forced to evacuate a British Airways plane when the cabin filled with smoke just before take off.

Airline engineers were carrying out a full examination of the aircraft to discover what had gone wrong.

One woman was slightly injured when the 54 passengers - including a man in a wheelchair and a mother and young baby- escaped the BAe 147 down emergency chutes at Belfast City Airport.

A full scale emergency was declared when the smoke appeared as the aircraft was reversing from in front of the terminal building before take off for the flight to Manchester just before 9am.

A British Airways spokeswoman said: "All the passengers were on board and, as it was pushing back from the stand, they noticed a slight haze of blue smoke in the cabin.

"The captain decided as a precautionary measure to have a full evacuation and emergency slides were deployed and all the passengers were safely evacuated down the slides."

One passenger of the flight said: "As the plane was moving towards the runway, the engine just died and then we heard the pilot shouting to evacuate.

"Thank God we weren't in the air. All the staff responded to the situation really quickly, although I think they were in as much shock as we were."

The injured woman, who is understood to have suffered a minor back injury while sliding down the emergency shoot, was treated at the scene by an ambulance crew.

She then joined other passengers in the BA lounge while alternative arrangements were made to fly them to England.

BA said later that within around three hours all passengers had either been given a replacement flight to Manchester or flights to other airports in England which suited them.

A spokesman for Belfast City Airport said: "The airport's emergency procedures were successfully implemented in full. The airport is operating normally and flights are leaving and arriving on schedule."

The aircraft was towed to a service area well away from the terminal building where BA engineers began their investigation.